Disk drive nightmare

[chemwarrior]

Alright, I have a Memorex DVD+RW/+R Internal Rewriteable drive. The damn thing is in the process of being used as the data drive for Encase to run... and now that the disk is full, I cannt get the darn thing to eject the disk:( And the problem is, Encase is just about done, only needs one, maybe two more dvds to be inserted and filled to complete it... so I cannt turn the comp off like I have other times to retrieve the disk... As well as I dropped 75 dollars on DVDs for Encase to write to.. and sadly, I purchased non-rewritables:( so I dont have the option of restarting encase after turning the computer off and extracting the disk, mainly because I dont have that sort of money to go spend on more DVDs... So what do I do? How can I get the drive open without harming it, and without shutting off the computer?? I cannt stop Encase, the files I lost are too important and MUST be retrieved, so I have to keep power to the computer till its done:(

Please, ANY advice would be appreciated and is MUCH needed....

[nbk2000]

Every drive I've ever seen has a tiny hole in the front that you can use to manually eject the disc with. It might be very tiny, but it is there. Once you find it, you'll need to find a stiff piece of wire or a very long and thin sewing needle to poke into the hole to cause the drive tray to unlatch. From there, just pull it open slowly and you're set. :)

[chemwarrior]

Thanks NBK, but I allready tried that... I DID recover the disk, however, the drive itself is being faulty. Ive inserted a new disk, but it claims the disk has the same exact files as the previous one. Its really grating on my nerves (then again, 29 hours without sleep will do that to most anyone.... lol) Anyways, I think I may have found a program that will allow me to recover all my missing files.. at least I hope so. The trial version will only allow up to 200kb, so Im hoping that most, if not all, the files will be recoverd. I know several of them wont be, but I may be able to afford the cost of getting the full version of this program... at least I sure as heck hope so.

http://www.x-ways.net/davory/index-m.html

Thats the site. Despite its rather, umm, lame, appearance, that particular program works wonders. I tried one of the other ones on there, I believe the Hex something or other, but it was too complicated for me to try to figure out.. I might try it again after I have a few hours sleep..

mmmm, sleep..... I crave sleep.....

[nbk2000]

It would help to know exactly what the problem was that required you to use Encase in the first place.

Corrupt Master Boot Record? Partitions not registering? There may be other ways to save the data. Speaking of which, what is it that you've got that requires so much retrieving? Is it the drive with the Forum FTP files that Ctrl_C sent you?

[chemwarrior]

Ctrl_C hasnt, at least not yet anyway, sent anyone the drive itself.

As to what I lost, I lost a good bit of the explosives section of the FTP. I havent got the faintlest clue how, but sense Ive been having some troulbes with a persisten hacker, i can see how::rolleyes: I also lost over 20gigs worth of personal information (and no, not porn, lol)

The resason for using Encase is it was the only program I knew of that could retrieve deleted files. I used what I thought was the full copy from the FTP, but come to find out its only a part of it.

Ehh, anyways, I should be able to retrieve the lost files. I may have to come up with a crack/ serial for the program though. So far, this thing has recovered files from YEARS ago that I thoujght had been securely erased (3 wipe pass for minor things, then a 36pass used periodically, for the whole drive)

NOTE- All the FTP files are still intact, minus the above mentinoed ones. I also have all the logins and such still, completely intact.

[jelly]

The Encase program on the ftp is complete and works very well.
But it has been primarily developed for finding evidences, not for undeleting files.

The "undelete" part of the "Norton Utilities" is still one of the best and most reliable
undelete programs. If you have a "Norton Emergency/Rescue floppy disk", try it out.

[FrankRizzo]

chemwarrior: I've got a copy of Winternals Filerestore. If you want it, I'll post it to an x-mail acct or something.

EDIT:If you have USENET access, go to "alt.binaries.cathybarry" There's a copy of Winternals ERD commander posted there.

[chemwarrior]

I dont have access to USENET unfortuanately, so if you could up it to somewhere on the web and send me and e-mail when its done, it would be greatly appreciated. My e-mail is- chemwarrior136@ziplip.com

Thanks in advance!